Well I picked the time to leave Montreal! It went from a nice warm-sunny 20degrees (Celsius) to -2 overnight and I was met with SNOW in the morning (which is apparently very rare this time of year) The wind started to pick up and I started to worry. Sure I’d endured the worst Alpine-rainy conditions on the way to Portland, OR but this was SNOW and yet again I was in a front-wheel drive rental Nissan Versa (with questionable tyres) I quickly got the scope of driving on a freeway though; keeping the tyres in tracks made by large trucks hence keeping them slightly warmer than running your own lines on snow. The wind and snow picked up to the point where I had the wipers on full-blast and I was overtaking most cars. Even so it was a good 3hrs of snow-storm freeway before the clouds started to clear.

When you eventually get into the city-scape of Toronto, it has the same International-fresh feeling that Vancouver does, only better weather. My hotel was on the top floor of a shopping centre; I was slightly worried about this but it turns out it’s an advantage; you have access to the array of cheap fast-food buffets on-hand in the foodcourt and the room was actually rather brilliant (probably the best so far on this trip) No plans for day one after the tiring 6hour drive but what better way to learn your surroundings than explore aimlessly.

I headed for an Intersection which just happened to be none other than Queen St W, which is scarily like Newtown in Sydney, right down to its music stores, tattoo parlours and herds of hipsters on the streets. After walking one way down, I decided to head the other and towards the towers of the CBD. The shops change from vintage-used-hobo-sheak to the typical International labels with hefty price tags you’ll find everywhere in this part of the world. But theres also an array of cool bar-restaurants that give this part of town a really cool vibe.

Toronto has a tram network, how similar this makes the area look to Melbourne is uncanny. Exactly like being in Fitzroy in Melbourne. I remember thinking great I’ve travelled 15,000km to go to Melbourne. It was interesting to note driving in also that the pushy-rudeness of drivers in Montreal hadn’t transferred to Toronto. It must be a French thing.

Toronto has some amazing Architecture; besides an array of Modern-futuristic sky scrapers that fill the CBD theres also older style heritage sites. A stand out though is the College of Arts building which looks like something of out Samuel Youd’s series of novels; The Tripods.

Some night photography and thai food rounded out a busy day.

After sleeping in and some more wandering about on day two I decided to head to the CN Tower, which was a bad idea because it was like $36 to go up. This sounds expensive but doable but unfortunately I’d made the proper commitment to cutback on expenditure upon arriving in Toronto (tightass? Well I’m 2g over budget and haven’t even arrived in the UK yet) A view of Toronto is something I could pass on.

The weather took a turn for the worst later in the day so I headed back to shelter, later in the night however I met up with a friend Cathy I’d met in a New York city hostel, scarily although she’d been living in Toronto she is originally from a suburb in Sydney 15minutes from mine. You really can’t escape us Australians no matter where you go the world over. I’d heard Canadians in Japan talk about something called “Poutine” so I was promised a late night venture to one of the better vendors of this Canadian delicacy. It’s basically hot chips with a covering of cheese, which then melts when you cover it with shit-hot gravy! Your given a spoon and encouraged to dig-in. It’s an experience for sure (especially great on a cold day)

On Friday I decided to head to Toronto Island, yes there is an island off the coast of the CBD. You hop a ferry for $6.50 and in about 10minutes your staring at an amazing panorama of the Toronto city-scape. The island itself is a lazy playground of sorts. A huge park with places to picnic, a small amusement fair for kids, animal farm, port for yachts and some landmarks. One side even has a beach! the best part about the place however is there is a plethora of cement bike paths criss-crossing about the island. You can rent a bike for as long as you desire.

This will sound rather silly but I’d forgotten how much fun it is to actually ride a bike without purpose. Just for the sheer fun of exploring and the convenience of effortless speed. I literally circled the entire island, a beach view, a lighthouse, local bird life. People actually have holiday houses in certain areas. Pretty great considering it’s a 10min ferry ride from a bustling CBD and you feel like your on a sleepy-town beach-island. I decided to make like the locals and a bunch of tourists and laze around some on the grass. A good change of pace from days of doing anything and everything.

Quite tired from kms of peddling I was walking past Queen St W on my way back to the hotel when I saw some local BMX bandits kick over a parking sign and then use it to flip jumps off on the footpath in betweens gaps of pedestrians! This was too good to pass up so I brought out the camera for some action shots. Some of the photos are rather good as one of the riders was getting some serious air and even went on to jump 2 of his mates standing up!

Final day in Melbourne’s doppelganger sister city, what better thing to do than to hit Kensington Market. Basically a collection of backstreets just west of china-town. The hipster/hippy/alternative/antique/collectible/used/vintage crowd is all represented here. A stretch of the area is essentially people having all collectively decided to turn their front-yards into shop stalls selling their own clothing and wares! I hadn’t seen anything like this since Tokyo! pretty amazing.

One store had every conceivable novelty instrument, I pondered purchasing an accordion more than once. Another had oldschool toys such as an array of gaming consoles to easy-bake ovens (in boxes) Another a shelf of used cameras, some with film still inside! After getting some food I stumbled to a small park near the area and pretty much fell asleep. The long bike ride the day before catching up to me perhaps?

Later than night before heading out I decided to visit a store called “Ed Harry’s” which is the inspiration for an amusing scene in the comic series Scott Pilgrim Vs The World. Unfortunately it was closed, so I didn’t get to experience it’s blinding brightness but got photos none the less. I had to call it an early night because I was up 4:50am the next morning for the drive back to New York and a stop off at Niagara Falls on the way!

Racing towards the border I made it to the Falls just after sunrise (the signs really don’t help you when approaching, a small 5minute detour into town eventually led me to the falls) You had to pay ridiculous amounts for parking; luckily it was just past 6am and there were no attends so I raced in for free, dodged the misty spray from the water and stood there taking in the sun clearing over some clouds. The area was also deserted, the average tourist not keen enough for 6am on a sunday morning luckily. The mist covered up half the view but it was awesome none the less!

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A short drive to Montreal, less than 6hours but hitting standstill traffic when coming into the city wastes another hour. This is where I had my first interaction with drivers in Montreal. Horns beeping, people ignoring a lanes existence and driving at tight angles to cut you off; leaving you the option to stop or have them drive into you. Lunacy! I immediately thought of the chaos of driving in Paris. It must be a French thing.

The world is a funny place, obviously I knew they speak French in Montreal but it’s just odd when you drive from New York into Canada and go from Imperial to Metric and then English to French. I hadn’t really bothered to learn much, I was told everyone pretty much speaks English as a second language and that was exactly the case. Every store you go into your greeted in French but as soon as you say Hello people will switch to English. It does make you feel like an outsider though.

Much of late Friday night was spent wandering around looking for an ATM most of which were ‘down’ with no Canadian cash at all it’d be hard to get into most places with a door charge, nor buy anything in a bar. So Instead I wandered about getting to know the Mile-End neighbourhood. I’ve probably never seen anything like it, other cities might have certain ‘hipster neighbourhoods’ but to some extent they all seem fake compared to Montreal’s actual grittiness. Sure you’ll find punk kids with mohawks everywhere but in Montreal they’re actually homeless and cleaning car windscreens at a traffic light.

There’s a bit of everything in this part of Montreal, an underlying sort of seedyness but mostly just a string of really cool bars and restaurants. I wandered down a back alley to find some kids laying in the middle of the road drinking and playing guitar, then in passing I find groups of Americans on a weekend away by the sounds of it; a bucks night perhaps. That’s sort of the context you’d want to be in this neighbourhood, with a big group of friends and on a big night out. Needless to say without cash I had neither so after some more wandering to get to know the area I had to call it a night.

Saturday, as it turns out the RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) ATMs are the ones to look for because they never fail. I eventually found one inside a small convenience store. The highlight of the day was probably walking into a ‘posh’ Sushi restaurant by mistake and then finding out they actually had all you can eat Sushi for $22. I don’t think I’ve eaten that much food in one sitting in awhile, Homer Simpson eat your heart out.

Montreal clubs love their electro and indie/newwave and alternative. Anything your after you’ll find in the Mile-End area of town. It does get expensive though, with Canada’s tax on everything not listed on the item price. More expensive than America!

On Sunday I headed up Mont Royal, which is a small mountain overlooking Montreal, a mere 6kms or so away from where I was. I considered biking it, Montreal has this brilliant rent-a-bike system throughout the city. Basically theres a long rack of bicycles and you swipe your credit card and it unlocks one and you have it for 30min for $5. Theres many of these ‘stations’ all over town and you can ride from one and leave it at the other. If you go over 30min you get charged $1.50 for every 30min you go over. It’s not that bad if you need to get somewhere quickly that isn’t a direction of the metro. Great for tourists exploring the city especially.

Luckily I decided to drive to Mont Royal however, It seems like a ‘large hill’ when you approach it and I was thinking “Im not going to see much from up there” but as it turns out it’s a rather steep climb and some bikers were struggling.

I parked up at the first lookout and a car was backing out, they stopped and walked over to my car and gave me their parking ticket which still had 25min on it. The view from the lookout is vast but kind of dull in away, mostly urban sprawl.

I decided to walk up the mountain further which lead into a forest trail of sorts. Within a couple of trees there was an open cliff top area, no fencing at all. You could walk right to the edge and just sit on the natural rock face ledge. I started to think about Sydney and Australias recent obsession with over-protective public safety. I couldn’t imagine an open ledge no fence clifftop in the cities main lookout. It seems the French Canadians just don’t give a damn. A kind of oldschool freedom far from the ideals of a nannystate. Or maybe the city just can’t afford to care, the recession in the 90′s is still prevalent in the terrible pot-hole riddled roads.

Whilst snapping photos a guy came over inquiring about my camera and asking what I was shooting, as it turns out he was a fellow Canon DSLR enthusiast. He was a local and showed me the way up the path to a better view of the city and then (although he was there with his girlfriend) he’d show me the way (by car) to the other side of the mountain where theres a lookout over the CBD which is the place to take photos. It’s pretty amazing how I always come across people willing to help me out (the world over)

The view overlooking the CBD was stunning and he even lent me his Canon wide-angle and zoom lenses! hence some of those photos look rather amazing! We bumped into a guy doing a plate-photo 5minute pinhole camera exposure of the scene also, pretty cool.

Amongst sampling restaurants, bars and shops on the last day I figured I’d head to the ‘biodome’ which is on the site of the old Olympic stadium. Parking was $12, the biodome was basically a reconstruction of eco-systems from around the world. For the entry price I thought it was a bit steep, especially since I’d already seen this at the ANHM in New York so I decided instead to wander around the stadium.

The stadium and its surrounds have really ‘let themselves go’ It does seem like a bit of a pariah at least since the Olympics came and went. It’s one big empty desolate concrete jungle, with the tell of being built for the 1976 Olympics, the stadium still looks modern but overall the area is showing its age in a bad way. Interesting for photo ops though.

Between the rudeness of the traffic, the traffic jams themselves and the rundown nature of certain parts of town, Montreal still has an upside (surprisingly) you have to do to some digging to find it though.

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Heading over to Brooklyn for the last time, I wanted to see if I could find some more bargains in the excellent shops around there. Wandering into an antique furniture store for no real reason. It’s really interesting checking out antique stores in foreign countries because their cultural history is so dissimilar to anything you’ve experienced back home. Amongst the furniture were toys, instruments, trinkets and nik-naks. Something that stood out in this particular store was a huge collection of ‘Life’ magazines dating back decades. Flicking through them is like stepping back through time.

Another interesting collection near the vinyl music section of the store was a collection of photos, literally in a huge pile in a 2metre wide crate, you trawl your fingers through them finding snapshots of memories people had shared and mattered at some point in time. It’s funny how you can discern what era a photo was from by the style of print of the photo and fashion/style of the subject. There was something from every decade from the 20′s and 30′s I’d say. Another area had boxes and boxes of postcards; used and new dating from as far back as the 1920′s. I flicked through them reading the messages from sender to recipient, one dated 1917 another 1946 and another 1974. I literally wanted to read them all but it would have taken days.

Wandering onwards to a used clothing exchange, a cool shirt for $10; perfect. My stomach rumbling I wandered back to the main strip and a Pizza place. Have I mentioned New York’s obsession with Pizza? It’s utterly ridiculous, there is one on every corner and that’s not an exaggeration. This particular store had an amazing selection and was probably the best I’d had in NY. I was then staring down at the wall eating my bbq marinara ranch chicken with pineapple! when I noticed a banner reading “Welcome new recruits” and the logo reading “DHARMA” hold on…

An Internet link flashed straight into my mind. Over a year and a half ago I came across an Internet link where someone had blogged about being in Hawaii and roaming around in-where they somehow stumbled on the shooting location of the TV series “Lost” and found a whole bunch of props from the show unattended and started taking photos. I linked everyone I knew to this blog because I thought it was rather amusing (and I loved the show at the time)

I was all set to ask the attendant where the hell he’d gotten the banner but then overheard people in the booth next to me talking about it first hand; “So a guy who worked here was in Hawaii and…” (long story short It was the same guy!) and apparently he decided to take the banner as a souvenir. Here I am, having traveled 15,000km and I randomly stumble into the guy’s Pizza place staring at the very sign I’d seen online.

Got back to my hostel and spoke to a dorm mate Bryan who was going to see a movie with other pals, I ended up tagging along (the movie being Kick Ass, which is an apt movie title) Afterwards they all decided to head for drinks in Lower-Manhattan so I tagged along. Next thing I knew we were putting cool songs on the jukebox and ordering pitcher after pitcher and approaching 3am (on a tuesday mind you) we decided to grab some food and call it a night.

We were wandering towards the subway when Bryan spotted an Art mural being posted up. As it turns out the mural was this The Artist being none other than Shepard Fairey (he was actually there finishing it off) The name sounded familiar but it didn’t click. I’d soon realise it was the same artist responsible for the world-famous OBEY works. Bryan knew his work a lot better than me (I think a friend had mentioned him in passing a few years back) But it didn’t click immediately. It was quite the experience, seeing this being worked on whilst tipsy drunk in New York and actually meeting the Artist there.

The Following day and I’d been pondering visiting the WTC site. I didn’t initially want to do it, because I knew it’d effect me profoundly and I’d be on a downer for the rest of the trip which is not to be disrespectful but In the end I decided I had face up to reality and do it. I hopped a train down to the financial district and wandered about there first. I came across a man bowing down before a giant bull-statue (the symbol for wealth/wall st? I’ve been told?) I’m not sure if it was performance art or simply some poor disgruntled American whose lost his home thanks to the recent Crisis’ (He was yelling at it; “Are you mocking me?”)

I’ve always laughed off banking conspiracies (you know the ones about the major banks of the world knowingly plotting in some clandestine/cult-like fashion to control everything; a tip of the hat to the empires of Rome) It all still sounds like utter crap, except for the Architecture and sheer money put into these buildings. They do almost to some extent look like ‘holy’ shrines to a bankers/traders money-fueled way of life.

The WTC site is huge, the footprint of the area below where the towers stood is probably two regular city blocks. My first impression of the people around was one of ‘We’ve got work to do” the cranes and construction workers scaling cast-steal beams in the far distance directing the pieces of a new tower in place. Signs around me point you in the direction around the site though I stopped short at a fire-station memorial with a placard of the faces of some 100 firefighters who scrambled as fast as they could to get into the towers to help people only to give the ultimate sacrifice in doing so.

Around the corner was a permanent memorial cast into the walls of the building. Some personal effects of one of the family members hung off it along with flowers and a flag nearby. The area was mostly tourists and school kids visiting, learning about the scale of what happened and what the future of the site will hold. The plans included a few things; from a new tower, to a park, to a memorial to two huge receding 2-tiered-level square ponds (which occupy the original footprint of the two towers) which will look amazing at night I think. For now the area is a buzz with construction. I tried taking some long-distance photos of the construction workers erecting steal only to have one walk past me and whistle at his buddy 50metres up as if to say ‘look good, your on camera’.

The vibe of the area is one of reserved pride. All the workers minds are on the job; getting these plans built whilst all the tourists stand solemnly in remembrance gawking at the new constructions forming before them. I will visit this place again when it’s completed. I think it’ll be a fitting tribute, you can always trust Americans for that. America is a country built on a secular constitution and I believe this place is holier than any place of religious worship.

Wednesday night was a trip back to Brooklyn and a venue by the name of the Brooklyn bowl to see Portland’s finest The Thermals with the best Jerseygirl ever; Molly. The band played a solid set which numbered something like 16songs-18songs. It was the second show in two days (the show the night before sold out) The crowd got treated a huge selection of songs spanning all of their albums with songs from The Body, The Blood, The Machine and last album Now We Can See seeming to get the biggest crowd response. Lead singer Hutch Harris exclaiming they were playing a longer set than yesterday because It was the last show of the tour, he also mentioned their new album is finished and being mixed by Chris Walla and will be out soon. For me; “Here’s Your Future”, “We Were Sick” and “I Called Out Your Name” were stand-outs. The band also played the song off the split 7″ vinyl they’ve released with The Cribs (which I hadn’t heard yet) amongst other new material which sounds rad overall. Full of energy, but plenty of room on the floor. The Brooklyn bowl is amazing; It’s a bowling alley and a restaurant and a venue in one. And you can see the band no matter what your doing! They even had projection screens above the ten-pins so you won’t miss anything if you’d rather bowl and drink and have the music as a live soundtrack.

Thursday, Last day in New York. I was considering visiting The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) because people have said it was ‘good’ but I kind of felt “museumed out” but after hearing Bryan and Ed rave about some of the installations there I knew I had to go. Luckily it closed 8:45pm on a Thursday. Little did I know what I’d run into…

I was expecting another run of the mill gallery, instead I got 6 levels of wow. Ill quickly summarise some of the stand out moments. Marina Abramovic is a performance artist who uses her body as her medium. She’s been doing this since the early 1970′s (in installation form) and MoMA just happened to be showing a retrospective of all of her ‘works’. For the first time, her older works were being performed by other people whilst she was present in a new piece which struck me as soon as I walked in.

It was a room with a square painted on the ground; A table in the centre and 2 chairs, one with Marina sitting there in an eye-catching red ceremonial style gown and the other free for members of the audience to participate in. People queued around the square watching on as Marina and a member of the public stared each other down. There was no time-limit for a person to sit there, some took 5minutes some an hour or more. I actually walked through other exhibits and came back to find the same women sitting there. For some it was too much, they’d leave with tears in their eyes perhaps recalling sad memories or successfully having read some in the blank stare of the artist herself. The performance was filmed and streamed on the Internet live and a photographer took photos of the participants which you can find here I overheard an array of comments from; “How completely lazy” to “I don’t think I could go up there” and “This is intense”. My interpretation of it was a commentary on the interaction between people on a daily basis, the distractions of speech and meaning removed.

I wandered through the works of Picasso for sometime then eventually moved on to more modern works like those of Kentridge. On my way up through the levels of sculpture and design I reached the second last level and walked in to find Van Gogh’s The Starry Night staring me in the face. I kind of froze, In the single art class I’d failed in high school we were made to re-draw this painting. It took me awhile to adjust to realise I was actually looking at the real thing (I wasn’t aware it was hung in America let alone the museum I’d just wandered into on a hunch) It is one of my favourite paintings to this day. Nearby were other Van Gogh works as well as those by Munch, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and Dali. What can one say other than wow.

I’d missed some of Marina Abramovic’s other retrospective works however I think they had closed for the night. They were being performed by other people one of which an interpretation of her 1974 work entitled “Rhythm 0″ was chillingly retold to me by my mates at the hostel it goes like this;

A woman was in a room by herself, only accompanied by a table with 72 objects on it; including scissors, markers, a whip and knives and a gun with 1 loaded bullet. The audience was instructed to use the objects on the women as they saw fit they were also allowed to put her limbs in any position. Initially people used the markers to draw on her and put her arms in certain positions but as time went by people started to use the knives to cut her (on the face) and it all slowly culminated to the point where an audience member, grabbed the loaded gun, placed it in the hand of the women, moved her arm and pointed the gun towards her own head and began to pull the trigger only to have the audience gasp in shock horror and head to pull it away.

MoMA really is one of the best museums I’ve ever been to. My last stop before closing however was the Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition. Basically he is the original intrepid exploring photographer. Starting in the 1930′s. As you enter the walls are plastered with maps of his journeys, he literally travelled everywhere before the average person knew what ‘there’ looked like and he took a huge array of photos being published by magazines such as Life, he also helped establish an photographers right to own his work. India/Indonesia during Independence / China during the revolution / USSR and the death of Stalin / The American post-war boom. He covered everything from the average shot of the everyday person to portraits of icons. I kind of got inspired after seeing his work and travels. Just thinking about it all logistically (how one traveled the world with camera gear in the early 20th century) It was utterly impressive.

I wandered around towards the Apple store on 5th Ave and that was pretty much the end of the day, my last set of photos in New York were black&white of random people interacting on the sidewalks of Midtown Manhattan some sort of pathetic attempt or homage to Cartier-Bresson? I don’t normally focus on strangers but I thought I’d give it a shot.

Later that night involved vodka, beers and generally a good time at the hostel (a hostel party of sorts)

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I was wondering ever since I got here where the best spot to view the bridges of New York would be, this is why staying at a hostel is a such a great thing; you can ask people. A dorm friend mentioned that High St in Brooklyn is the train stop to head to. The station leads you a hundred metres or so from the pedestrian entry to the Brooklyn bridge.

The Brooklyn bridge was built in 1883 and is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the USA. It links everywhere I’ve mentioned thusfar in Lower-Manhattan to Brooklyn across the East River. I was all set to walk across it except then I noticed a ‘tourist placard’ highlighting some areas of Interest on the foreshore around the western side of the bridge.

I only ended up walking to the first pillar and then turned back to get some proper photos of it from below and checkout the area of parks known as ‘DUMBO’. Which is apparently an acronym for ‘Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass’.

Right beside the Brooklyn bridge to the North is the Manhattan bridge though also linking Lower-Manhattan and newer it’s just as pretty in my view. Dumbo and it’s surrounds have all been gentrified lately which brand new parks and a foreshore walking area (construction is still going on) and a small group of restaurants peppered the area. No doubt it’s going to become popular when complete. I wondered what the area was like before all the new shiny buildings ‘moved in’. One old building was still in a derelict state with rusted cast iron doors. I peaked inside a crevice between a door to find random plate scraps about; probably the home to many a homeless person.

I snapped some photos of the Manhattan bridge, walked the shoreline towards the Brooklyn bridge and then to the extreme southern point of the newly constructed park. You could see The Statue of Liberty in the distance as well as a nice panorama of East Manhattan.

Joggers were already taking over the area, though I did share a hello nod from a fellow wannabe photographer. It’s good to see this area in this transitional state I think, though I would’ve loved to explore it awhile ago.

Some food points of note were; ‘a home made ice cream factory!’ and further away from the shore an amazing store obsessed with chocolate of all sorts.

I probably spent a good half-hour sitting on the foreshore though. It’s actually quite amazing, or discerning even; that is what New York does to a person. For whatever bad things people might have to say about America, New York is the answer to all that crap. For all it’s crime and violence, social and homelessness issues and other problems It’s so big and encompassing you just get pulled in and before you know it your a part of it all. It’s as if it’s size gives it it’s own gravity.

It feels like I’ve been lazy in New York to some extent, every day in every other city I’ve had something planned but with the scope of the city you just feel content to wander around and feel you’ve achieved something. The subway is probably my favourite on this journey thus far, it’s grimeyness, noisiness and generally the rattling state of the tracks don’t detract from the fact its laid out fairly well and the trains run bang on time.

I think a fair comparison of the A C E line to Brooklyn is to that of; one of those ‘ghost ride’ trains you used to get on as a kid in dodgy theme-parks. Theres a section where you can see the walls 20cm either side of the carriage as it seems to be topping out at max speed and the carriage itself is banging left to right testing your grip on the railings until finally the conductor locks up the brakes probably seeing how quickly he can pull up at the station ahead. But it all runs like clockwork.

I had many a discussion with different people, some say New York is a hole to live in; it’s traffic the ‘general rudeness of people’ make it a nightmare. Others say it’s better to live here than to visit. I still haven’t made up my mind. In a way you can find everything New York has in other cities; it’s even better in some but it just has this vibe of a modern-cultural-melting-pot-juggernaught that’s been doing it longer than anyone else and it’ll keep on doing so no matter what you think or do. It’s vastness is totally welcoming, alluring even.

My first site of it in the taxi from the airport was simply ‘wow’, after two weeks I’m no longer ‘wowed’ but just feel like I’ve always lived here. It’s probably because most other cities in the world have copied what New York has to offer and I feel a comforting familiar similarity.

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Thursday rolls around; In anticipation of big night I thought I’d take it easy during the day. First up was some house-keeping in which my case was actually getting Internet access somehow and organising things amidst plates of salad and servings Sencha tea. I found a restaurant that was happy to oblige for a good 2-3hours. Next I thought I’d get in some quick mid-day shopping (Thankfully I now own Iggy Pop’s – Raw Power on vinyl) Upon wandering back I came across Washing Park, a small park in Greenwich Village. It’s a big hangout for students and people were lazing around on the grass to the point of saturation. I got a beverage and decided to do the same for a while. A few random buskers including a guy in a gorilla mask give the park a nice background-sound tamborine-vibe. I kinda lost track of time just lazing about and people-watching in the park. It’s probably the first time I’ve just chilled out with no goal for the day in over a month.

I went to checkout a few bars in the night-time with the target being a pub/club in the Lower East. It was surprisingly quiet, the music was spot on but it was basically just a small pub and it had that relaxed vibe to it. I’d hazard a guess people were at a few sold-out venues watching bands that night? Who knows but I decided I’d throw in the towel and make up for it with an all-nighter on friday (hopefully)

Friday in New York! I made plans to continue the Seinfeld-themed spot visits from the random black and white cookie incident two days before. The ‘Soup Nazi’s” original kitchen has closed and he has since started a franchise called “The Original Soup Man” with a few locations in New York and elsewhere. I went out of my way to visit two such locations only to find that they’d closed down as well? This was all too much walking and train hopping for soup so I headed somewhere that I knew was open. ‘Tom’s Restaurant’ is the diner used for the ‘outer-shot-view’ of the diner that the cast would gather in daily in the show. The interior is obviously different though but the cafe/restaurant does tip its hat to the show and has some memorabilia inside. It’s an average day-to-day burger/style cafe restaurant. Nothing grand (and no I didn’t order the big salad)

On the way to Tom’s I did however manage to stop in the New York public library. Which just happened to currently be surrounded by scaffolding for cleaning/renovation? So much for that. I did go inside though (Free high-speed WIFI) which I thought I’d use to organise where I’d be going at night. The library basically looks like a museum inside and has endless halls and reading rooms full of art and the like. You could probably spend half a day looking at the art about. I decided I was all ‘museumed’ out and just bunkered up in one of the many grand reading rooms using the time to upload a backlog of photos. Upon random roaming around I also stumbled on an outdoor ice-rink, rad.

Dinner and a club/venue called Webster Hall in Lower-Manhattan. Just like back-home the place doesn’t really pickup till after 12am. The music was questionable for an “Indie night” with lots of 80′s mainstream hits being played I was having flashbacks at being at dodgy ‘retro’ hotels back home but thankfully there were a few different DJ’s and eventually they played as advertised. I’d ceased to care though because as it turns out it was a ‘birthday bash’ for a whole group of people that night and before I knew it I was being offered shots and drinks left right and centre. An utterly memorable night, I basically got no sleep at all, even after leaving circa 3am.

Saturday was spent nursing a sore head and swimming in a sea of blankets amongst other things.

On Sunday I was switching to a hostel because it’s cheaper and you always meet some cool people. Oh and I had to do laundry, ugh laundry day. After the menial tasks of life, I decided that since I was now in a new part of New York to go for a bit of a wander. Madison Square Garden, tourists, busy shops and people handing out flyers. I ducked for cover into a Macy’s because the name is an Icon for American shopping. It’s apparently the biggest store in America? 8 stories and two city blocks! I was just taking in the scope of the store rather than looking to buy anything, not that I’d spend $500 on a jacket anyway.

The weather was getting rather cold though, what better excuse to duck into a one of the many specialty stores peppered along 8th Ave for a browse? I wanted to leave buying a coat for the UK (since I’ll be facing winter back home in Australia) but found a really helpful attendant and the store had a huge range of rad (though pricey coats and jackets) I found one I loved and bargained it down 10% so hence had to buy it. Besides you have to spend on something whilst in NYC, my crowded suitcase is not going to like this one bit though.

Sunday night was amazing times with an amazing person. Sushi at a Japanese restaurant in the Art Gallery District, a spot of bowling, drinks and hanging out in time square only to witness an on-the-spot wedding proposal amid a cheering crowd. New York what am I going to do with you?

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CHECK OUT MORE AT FLICKR

A full day of walking yesterday, but It was time to venture out of the relative ‘safety’ of Manhattan (people and crime stats make it the safest place in New York) and everywhere else? Well you hear stores from different people and wonder. So It was a short walk and a hop, onto the L train and across the East River. I actually had no Idea what to expect.

Rising from the grungyness of the subway up a flight of stairs and your smack-bang in the action; Bedford Ave. A much more relaxed vibe than Manhattan, no skyscrapers in sight (except when you catch a glimpse across the river down a side-street) This part of Brooklyn really has a community/working class vibe to it and whilst you’ll find some nice stores and restaurants on the main strip you really have to go exploring; which I did completely aimlessly.

I ended up coming across *shock horror* an Indie record store (I’m like a St. Bernard rescue dog, I can sniff these things out of nowhere) Anyway for those of you reading most of these posts your probably sick of me mentioning them, but it’s tried and tested if theres one around theres usually other community minded people who will be running rad restaurants / other shops.

I walked all of a hundred metres and came across a used vintage clothing exchange called ‘Beacon’s Closet’. There was some utterly cool stuff in there (for really cheap prices) I ended up walking out with some cool t-shirts for like $6 a pop. Win. Amusingly also; I had a guy sitting down on near the door on my way out exclaim “Yo, I love your shoes, I ain’t ever seen that!”. I didn’t know what to say, so I just smiled and nodded and kept walking; to which I got “Oh, Nothing to say to me COZ IM A BLACK MAN”. At which point I burst out laughing, even though he was serious. I replied how it was a long silly story, didnt want to waste his time with it and told him to have a good one. He looked rather bemused at my accent. Aussie charm always seems to work in these situations.

I wandered around Brooklyn some more and stopped for lunch at a Thai place, which had $5 lunch menu, pretty great value. Took some more photos as well as some backstreet photos of graffiti, which is all over the place. There’s a lot of warehouses and such down by the river. It’s where a lot of these funky stores seem to be. The real reason I hiked in that direction though was to buy tickets for a gig next week (The Thermals) because you couldn’t buy them online. Unfortunately the venue was closed! and didn’t have a day-box office. The guys at the music store said another venue in Manhattan sells tickets for them though.

So it was back across the river to lower manhattan to find this venue. I get there to find an open box-office but am told they DONT sell tickets for the brooklyn bowl. So I’d almost given up, later on I’d find out you COULD actually get them online. Great big waste of time.

The MET was apparently a big Museum that everyone must visit. I arrived just after 4pm with the idea of running through it in two hours. You get to pay what you want after 4pm, so I only paid $5 but it was a big mistake none the less. The place is HUGE! Is everything in New York on such a grand scale? Yes! I merely got to the end of the Greek art section and 1hour had passed, talk about getting lost in the exhibits. Theres big marble carvings to actual armour / swords / helmets on display. Think about it, 2000years ago some guy was wearing this in battle and killing people with that sword. You can’t discount smaller pieces either. I wandered straight passed a collection of ‘trinkets’ and then backed up and thought, hold on this is the real deal.

We’ve become so accustomed in modern times to just stroll past market places, sidewalk stalls of mass produced jewellery and what not. But here were coins and mugs and jewellery of high quality made and worn by someone 2000years ago. When you look at the big picture and take in all the art from this perspective you could stand there for weeks just admiring the scope of it all. The MET is one hell of an Impressive house of house of Art but it’s also about our History.

I decided flat out, I had to skip like 80% of the Museum because of the time left so I just skipped right along to the Medieval section because It’s something I’ve genuinely never seen before. I got there as it was closing but got in some quick snap shots. The Armour is complete Art unto itself, the detail put into the pieces that make up the suit and the decoration. Add to that; it all served an actual purpose for use in battle for whoever it was commissioned for. They also had a mockup set of Knights riding on Horses, and horse battle armour also. An utterly awesome sight. Then unfortunately it was closing time. I only saw a fraction of the MET. I think I’ll be back.

I then decided to walk across Central Park for the first time. You always hear bad stories, hell I’m sure at least 20% of the death scenes in Law and Order happen there right? All I’d been told is just don’t go in at night which is probably wise. Firstly, its HUGE so you can get lost in there easily. Luckily theres maps though. You find joggers, people walking dogs, families, baseball. It’s just been given a bad rep I think. It was gorgeous in parts too! I walked through an area called Shakespeare’s Garden and onward to a tower/house which was apparently occupied during its early history. There were squirrels running about in the grass and I then came across a racoon just strolling by. I can’t comment what it’s like at night cause I’m going to heed advice given to me, but during the day it’s the perfect break from the bustling city.

I emerged out the other side with one goal in mind; Times Square. So I hopped a train and a short walk and I was there; Times Square / New York City! Thankfully they’ve put up a sort of ‘staircase’ useful for gawking foreigners like myself so you can sit down and just take it all in. I watched the place light up as darkness crept in ever so slowly. It’s exactly like Shibuya in Tokyo, bright as day due to neon signs and advertising and the hustle of people walking in all directions. You don’t know which way to look.

I took some photos and helped out with people who wanted photos of them taken. I was walking towards the other end of the square when I noticed something in a window. A cookie. Not just any cookie! THE black and white cookie (for all you Seinfeld fans) I almost tripped over myself to buy it. It’s actually pretty amazing. I’ll quote Jerry Seinfeld:

“You see, Elaine, the key to eating a black and white cookie is that you wanna get some black and some white in each bite. Nothing mixes better than vanilla and chocolate. And yet still somehow racial harmony eludes us. If people would only look to the cookie, all our problems would be solved. Look to the cookie Elaine, Look to the cookie.”

As if mirroring the episode (in where Jerry tips his cookie to an African-American fellow) A guy commented on my shoes but spoke with an British accent. We got to talking bars and clubs and what not, Brit people abroad are always so outgoing. He mentioned that Brits aren’t like that back home though. I guess I’ll find out eventually.

Just like that I decided to call it a night, I threw in some random hipster shots modelling my new shirt purchases though lol. Still happy about those stores in Brooklyn, I think I’ll head back there and find some more.

CHECK OUT MORE AT FLICKR

CHECK OUT MORE AT FLICKR

Okay time-schedule showdown time. How long’s it take to drive from San Francisco to L.A (according to my GPS 5hours 40minutes) the plan was; set alarm to 5:40am, leave at 6am, arrive at LAX to return rental car and hop a plane to New York which left at 1:35pm. Basically left myself 1hour for messups. I woke up at 3:50am for some reason so went back to bed and then the next time I’d look at my clock; 6:49am! OH SHIT! (alarm failed) I then ran down stairs to find that the valet would take 20minutes to get my car. Eventually left at 7:15am, front-wheel drive rental car drift on the streets of SF. I ended up tale-gating a honda civic over bumpy roads and in my half-woken daze could have sworn it was NFS: Underground for a few minutes. Anyway onto the freeway in no time at all and then calculating in my head if I’d be able to make it with fuel stops and such.

Long story short; I made it and I was checking in for the flight as it was boarding (returning the car took some time also) All good though. I was flying Virgin for the first time and was utterly blown away. The planes basically looked brand new interior wise (obviously recently refitted) You have an LCD touchscreen where you order anything you want (and swipe a credit card to pay for it) so you get custom food, movies and… Internet! WIFI on a plane and it was pretty damn quick, they also had charging sockets under every seat. My friends were in a spin when I was chatting to them live whilst flying across the USA. Radness.

It’s funny how quick a 6hour flight goes when you’ve got access to your own laptop and the net. I think I’m over my fear of flying too, well it never was a fear of flying it’s more fear of crashing into a mountain at 860km/h but that stems from not being in control of the plane I think. What’s this? JFK airport, New York!

I was off the plane in no time and had a cabbie come up to me asking me where I’m headed. I was a bit weary, in alert mode even when he lead me to his ‘taxi’ which was a 4WD with no taxi logos on it and New Mexico license plates. So right away I asked for ID. I was put at ease though when he conversed with the ticket-booth guy about a slow-night of work (they knew eachother) As it turns out he uses a 4WD because he aims to pickup families and such but was having a really slow day. I was still weary about being ripped off so I fired off questions; how much will the fare be, how long will it take to get there. He did mention “plus tolls” and there were no tolls on the way aside from the $18 cabbies pay to park at the airport. Should I be paying this? It didn’t seem right. But we got to talking and it turns out his family had moved from India and we discussed Cricket, America, Australia and the Melbourne racist attacks. In the end he was really knowledgeable and was weaving in and out of traffic like a madman (which is good when your in a rush) And he waved the $18 toll with whatever I had. Still felt the fare was steep (NOTE: I’ve talked to some locals and basically always go for yellow cabs as other ones such as the one I took charge a lot more) I checked into my hotel at 11pm! (you lose 3hours flying LAX to JFK because of the time difference so It’s a 9hour flight) So quickly showered and was keen for the following day.

The last two days involved 15hours of driving, a 6hour plane trip and dealing with a 3hour time difference which is probably why I woke up at 1pm! I’m using the internet and google maps a lot to plan out my day, this is bad because my current hotel has the worst Internet I’ve come across in years. It’s like 28.8k speed and drops out every 3minutes for long periods. It’s utterly frustrating when your trying to look at maps and get a scope of where to go. It took me over an hour to get moving. But oh well I decided to just leg it, roam around and follow my nose as usual.

I’ve got my eye (or ear) set on some albums I’m after that I know you can buy in America, ones which I couldn’t be bothered ordering back home. I went to three different music stores in Lower-Manhattan to no avail! On first impressions Midtown to Lower-Manhattan is a little bit like (for all you Australians) Newtown in Sydney, Fitzroy in Melbourne and The Valley in Brisbane but it’s also so much more. It does vary as you move through certain areas (it’s broken up into several sub-areas such as East Village / Greenwich Village / Tribeca and so on) which vary from the trendy to the arty to bluecollar and that’s just below the Midtown line (which is determined by the L-train that goes over the river into Brooklyn) Oh and of course it’s so much bigger than any of those places in Australia.

Instead of being one ‘main strip’ of cool shops and restaurants it’s basically all over, the shops and restaurants only broken up by blocks (off the ‘main’ roads) by blocks of old-style brownstone rowhouse villas (would you call them Victorian? I’m not sure) Before I knew it it was dinner time and I was utterly done in by the walking (and perhaps still getting over the past few days) Planning a big day tomorrow I called it a day.

11am, dusty road. I’m gonna walk ’til it burns my bones. But before that my first encounter with New York’s subway on my way to the American National History Museum. You can buy a Metro card (the cheapest of which is $27 for 7days unlimited use, perfect) It’s so easy to navigate New York in general because of America’s love of ‘numbered streets’ that is in Manhattan you’ll find 1st st run parallel with 2nd, 3rd and so on all the way into the 100′s and they generally run East/West and are denoted by E on the East side and W on the… and then they have 1st Ave etc run North/South. So basically if someone gives you an address like 42nd / 5th Ave you know exactly where it is, how to get there and how far away it is. Likewise the subway stops are named after the streets they stop at. Simple.

The subway itself is grungy and dingy in areas and the entrances can sometimes be pretty hard to find, they’ll be the size of 2 food card stands around a corner with no signs directing you there. If you have a map your set though. Once in the subway it feels safe and the trains seem to run pretty on schedule (better than Sydney’s timing at least, but not as clean) I was at the Museum in minutes.

It was somehow already 12pm and I stood staring at the map of the museum kind of in disbelief, 4 levels and a few city blocks in area. It closed at 5:45pm and even then I knew it wouldn’t be enough time so I set off double-time. It has everything on show in such detail that I honestly don’t know where to begin, nearly 300 photos on my flickr page is only a fraction of what was on show. I was literally walking into areas and taking photos of 1/20th of the stuff on show and had to skip taking photos in other areas all together. I was determined to see it all and vowed not to stop and loiter but at times it’s just too hard you want to know all about the exhibits and you find yourself standing there reading explanatory captions.

I booked one of the ‘shows’ in the 3D dome which was ‘Journey to the Stars’ narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. It was rather awe-inspiring but too short! Entertaining though, Carl Sagan would have been proud. In the end I was being told it’s closing time but I’d ALMOST done it. I’d missed 2 areas of the Museum and my legs were dead tired but no time to whine it was time to try out an iPad!

I walked over to Apple’s newest store (not the famous cube which was too further a walk) but the store is just as stylish (basically a glass cube set in a building, check out the photo) I walked in to find many tables filled with iPads and literally a customer and every single one, there were one or two free and I quickly hopped in a spot to pick one up. Mini review/thoughts to follow;

From the photos I always thought the desktop looked empty, but I quickly realised this is just because I’m used to my Iphone with everything packed in tight. I first clicked on iTunes, the processor and memory is FAST. Displaying 4albums wide and scrolling down yields no lag at all. Next the iCalender, very easy to navigate and view, basically a dream for you organisational nuts like myself. Then photos and movies and a few games.

I couldn’t stop playing around with it, I noticed I was mostly using it in sideways (wide mode) but you need to put it down to type that way. When you’ve got it in Vertical mode the keyboard is perfectly spaced for thumb typing, just like you do on your iPhone but SO much quicker. I’ve heard a few reviews comment that the keyboard is retarded in those mode but it’s quite obvious, its meant to be held in this mode and perhaps put down to type in the other. The spacing is perfect and I found myself 2 thumb typing almost as quick as I qwerty typed in horizontal mode with no errors! Most of the people near me were older folks asking questions to the staff and then being awed with how simple the replies were in this machine doing what they want.

In the end when I walked out and took out my iPhone it felt completely wrong, like my world had shrunk and this miniature machine was unusable! To call the iPad ‘just a bigger iPod touch’ is utter utter lunacy. It’s like being a graphic designer and comparing work on playing card sized screen compared to a dual-display widescreen 24″ lcd. Size matters! It opens everything up and lets you do so much more. I think apple has built all these little apps into iPhones and Ipodtouch’s that we’ve become accustomed to organising our days on miniature devices. In reality you can’t get much done on them and the iPad is proof and parcel of it, everyone should wakeup and realise this. I was already thinking I’d chuck away my iPhone for one, but then realised hold on; it’s not actually a phone. So is it better than my newly acquired macbook pro? For what I’m doing right now (traveling the world and using a macbook mostly for Internet / Maps / Emails / Organisation / Blogging) I think it’d serve me just as well. The only place it’d fall down would be multitasking things. OS4.0 is apparently going to change this. The other reason I didn’t get one on the spot was lack of 3G thusfar, I’ve been in the heart of Tokyo, L.A, San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, New York and utterly struggled with WIFI on my phone. There are not enough reliable/fast and open! WIFI connections out there. It’s just that simple. The device with 3G capability will be killer though. Using the GoogleMaps App to direct me from the Apple store to the Empire State building was utterly ridiculous in how easy and great it is.

A short walk and I was standing at the bottom of the Empire State Building, something everyone in New York has to do apparently. An elevator takes you to the 80th floor and then another takes you to the 86th (good number) where I walked out to be gobsmacked at the site. People are right; everyone in New York should see this view once. It was getting right on dusk so the sun would be setting soon and I walked round ‘n round looking to all points of the great sprawling city. You can see both rivers either side of Manhattan and into New Jersey and North / South as far as the eye can see. It’s kind of a ‘Sim City’ feeling because your literally above everything around you. You hear a siren blaring in the distance and try and spot it down the traffic lanes that curve off into the horizon to be swallowed up by rows of skyscrapers. Yellow taxi cabs herd and graze at traffic lights. Several bridges cross the river either side of you and you wonder where they lead and who is on them.

It kind of eerie how calm it was up there, I was expecting an unnerving wind that would push you towards the edge but it was completely calm no wind at all and I happily lent against the fence vying for a good vantage point for a photo opportunity of the sunset on the horizon. Crystal clear skies also, I’d fluked the perfect weather to head up! The perfect end to a day exploring NYC.

CHECK OUT MORE PHOTOS AT FLICKR

CHECK OUT MORE PHOTOS AT FLICKR

Driving a short trek from Vancouver, BC in the morning to Portland, OR. Six hours of freeways ugh. Funnily enough I got pulled up at the boarder because the people at LAX (when I arrived initially) hadn’t stapled/stamped my customs declaration (they stamped the passport only) and the guys at boarder control were rather confused with this; they thought I was entering the U.S for the first time. I sorted it out in 5minutes though and was on my way. Not much fun but getting into Portland felt kinda weird, like oddly familiar in a way as if I’d been living there for years some time ago and I needed to catchup on things.

I got a late lunch at Wendy’s. I’ve made it one of my points to try every dodgy fast food place America has to offer. From comparing the major chains to ones back home and new ones serving up generally the same rubbery burgers. Wendy’s was rather dodgier than the rest though. It was also kind of funny being in there as a tour bus or something had formed a queue before me. Nothing like experiencing the American dream; the rush and commotion of orders being yelled in a Wendy’s burger queue.

I was trolling through The Mercury (Portland’s free street-press equivalent of the DrumMedia in Sydney) It’s odd how similar they are actually. Jotting down some things to do on my last night in Portland (the next day would mean a long (10hour) drive to San Francisco, I was only half interested in some of the stuff going on so I decided to call some contacts from the previous visit. Portland know-it-all Noelle (knowelle) gave me directions to a house party where another mate Clint’s band was playing a gig.

The house was in SE Portland and was utterly rad, it had no plasterboard on the walls so it was just timber framing inside but had heaps of character and was very welcoming, I got to talking to one of peeps who lived there about a few things such as the random art on the walls and some of the band equipment in one of the rooms. They apparently just picked up some equipment and jammed when they felt like it, weren’t really in a band or anything. When I got there however “Jackalope Saints” were about to kick off their set to an intimate room of locals swilling IPA brews and the odd home-made concoctions mixed in jam-jars.

Straight from the get-go I noticed that lead singer Clinton Herrick’s vocals are spot on for the vibe of the band; a 4 piece with double-bass / acoustic gtr / with lead mandolin-banjo to boot! For all your Australians think; Xavier Rudd but less beach-bogan with didgeridoo and more Pacific-Northwest American refinement. The set swaggered from slow songs with cool picking to upbeat strumalongs with impressive lead mandolin. With folkrock influences like Paul Simon this relatively new yet fairly tight band has a bright future beyond their native Portland, Oregon.

I tried snapping photos in vain; it was a living room in a house after all and there were no front-facing stage lights but I did snap a few that captured the mood; people dancing along with beverages of choice in hand. After the set I explored the house some more until it was suggested we move on to a cool bar somewhere in the NE, when you’ve essentially got a tour guide you don’t pay much attention to where your going. I then got roped into trying something called a hot-totty (or something) which was hot whisky with lemon and honey and some other stuff. Noelle bet her life on it’s sugary allure but I couldn’t stomach it! Not so much the taste but the hot-ness thing. I have heaps of trouble putting down hot sake also so maybe I’d like the iced variety? After some food and whatnot we headed to meet another pal of Noelle’s and talk shit at another bar. This led to us eventually deciding to hit a strip-club.

Noelle and Brett knew one of the dancers, which Brett tells me isn’t unusual. Have I forgotten to mention that Portland as a city has the most strip clubs (per capita) in the world?! (I thought it was only in the U.S) But Noelle corrects me triumphantly. Fuck Vegas, who needs it? Essentially Portland isn’t anywhere near as seedy as Vegas nor does it have any of the fakeness of diva-esque neon lights haphazardly ram shackled onto anything that will support them. The clubs and scene is there but it’s more understated. It’s there if you want it. Anyway twenty or so $1 bills and a few drinks later and it was closing time. The girls at Sassy’s work pretty damn hard and put on a rad show, Brett/Noelle’s friend was probably the best there and came for a chat later on. She mentioned wanting to travel around and to Australia even but like anyone else, it’s hard to get some savings together. It reminded me how long it’s taken to get mine together to be doing this.

Saying goodbye in the early morning and then driving out of Portland left me with a feeling of sadness, as if I were driving away from well known and loved surroundings/people evan though in reality I’m no local. I haven’t really felt that way at all on this trip so far (apart from leaving Tokyo) A few droning hours on a freeway sorted me out though. Got into San Francisco late again, great.

Saturday night really isn’t the night to be out in SF it seems, It was basically the same deal as last time round. Cheesy club nights. I got dinner and roamed around a bit, random pubs that weren’t playing anything interesting and this was in the Mission district. I don’t know if I’ve somehow unluckily missed all the cool places or something but SF just doesn’t seem to be my kinda town. Which is odd because everyone I’ve talked to has spoken fondly of it. It is the place to be if you like “cutting-edge” hipster electro-dj nights and r&b and soul and the like. It reminds me a lot of Sydney in that it has it’s gorgeous tourist sites (if you take away the two or three half-deascent club nights that is) Ouch, scathing! huh?

As I mentioned before though, a lot of the places I wanted to visit have literally closed in the last month so maybe it’s going through a change of guard in regards to Indie venues or whatnot. Who knows, all I know is I’ve managed to sniff out amazing places in every city I’ve visited thus far including ones where I can’t speak the language and San Francisco wasn’t speaking mine. Not enough time I guess! Roll on New York.

CHECK OUT MORE AT FLICKR

CHECK OUT MORE AT FLICKR

Shitty shitty weather! Theres nothing more depressing than knowing you’ve only got a short window of time (a mere 4 days) to explore an entire city you’ve never been to before and then the weather rolls in and kills the mood. I only had two days left in Vancouver and still wanted one more trip to Cypress Mountain to kick up some powder yet the forecast all week was for storms. I walked outside my hotel to wander about putting off boarding until tomorrow (the last day in where i’d hope conditions would improve)

I decided to check out the Vancouver Art Gallery, not that I haven’t seen enough art lately but they actually had a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition on. The first time his actual works on anatomy had been shown outside their keeping place in the UK from memory. It didn’t feel real standing there viewing the works, they were pages from an in-depth investigation of the structure of the human body from muscles, to veins to bones and how they’re all connected, the drawings featuring annotated commentary. So as well as being art unto themselves they were a revelation in regards to our understanding of the structure and function of the body.

Complementing the Da Vinci display was a contemporary artistic interpretation of the human body, its parts and functions. Upstairs were more contemporary works including photography but this time from Canadian artists. One work of photography was a set of photos aligned chronologically starting with a dead man laying in snow. It turns out it was the scene of a murder and as the photos continued on the captions told the story of what had happened and how it all unfolded. Pretty chilling stuff.

I spent a good 2hours in there only to come out to find the rain and wind was still going strong. No photos allowed inside the gallery and no photos of Vancouver this day because of the endless rain I’m not willing to ruin my camera when it’s raining sideways. Basically the shifty weather would mean I’d be experiencing my first real regret of this trip and that is missing out on wandering around Vancouver’s renowned Stanley Park not to mention the famous suspension bridge (which I was really looking forward to) or getting the vibe of Gas Town which I’d almost gone to on the first day. I ended up wandering in a few stores and then just decided to call it a day (the rain wouldn’t stop) It was pretty much the same story at night, most of the bars were empty due to the weather so I headed back with fingers crossed hoping tomorrow would bring a change (which wasn’t forecast)

I awoke to a blue-cow day. Cypress Mountain was on standby though due to high winds… which didn’t sound promising but I decided to risk it and drive up there. It’s only thirty minutes from my hotel carpark to the lodge carpark its brilliant anddddd it had snowed last night (55cm!) Driving up the 12km road to get to the resort I was met with snow covered trees and high embankments either side of the road made of snow and when I finally got to the top it was dead calm! blue skies and a half full first carpark, perfect.

There was a fresh depth of powder and I pretty much spent the next 7hours up there. Cypress has night sessions but even regular days run to 7pm! It’s such a good resort, I could see myself living near there driving 30minutes for a quick board after work. It’s just a shame that the Vancouver traffic situation is so bad. It’s akin to Sydney’s really. The drive to the mountain is quick but I noticed straight away the short comings of this city. The Lions Gate bridge, a big, beautiful suspension bridge linking the city and the North. It’s 3 lanes!!! So when you drive back you basically meet peak-hour going out of the city (they get 2 lanes) and then 4 lanes towards the city merge into 1! An utter planning disaster and it’s the only way to get across the water. It’d be a nightmare to deal with every day.

So I wound back to my hotel circa 8pm, went to dinner and it again started to rain. I decided since it was my last night in Vancouver and I hadn’t really gone out I’d give it a shot but only ended up finding sports bars and getting soaked, with a 6hour drive back to Portland, OR early the next morning I decided the weather had me defeated! A bit of a let down but in the end it’s not always going to be sunshine and blue skies and after all I did get my two days of boarding in so I’m still content.

Next few days I’ll be on the road a lot!

GASP! SHOCK HORROR, no photos to show thusfar. As one day was in a gallery that didn’t allow it and messed up by the rain, the other day was spent on a cold snowy mountain where my camera shall not venture (I do have FILM camera shots though which will be updated / online one day)

Vancouver is only 2.5hrs drive from Seattle (or less even) Its like Sydney to Newcastle. Crossing my first border was Interesting. It doesn’t feel like your in a different country at all at first. But then you start hearing French on the radio. I was wondering where the hell the mountains were, I couldn’t see anything in the distance at all and then the freeway obviously changes direction and your staring at these Mordor-esque HUGE mountains in the distance, they literally cut out of the flat landscape like giant city-wide pyramids the top half of which just completely disappears into fog/clouds.

Soon you cross a bridge and your driving through suburbia and then downtown Vancouver jumps out at you with mountains visible in the background like some fake backdrop on a stage performing a Shakespearian play. Snowboarding snowboarding where for art thou snowboarding. It’s quite an amazing site, the freeway/overpass gives you this oversight towards the mountain and the cityscape buildings build themselves up either side of the road you enter on.

Vancouver looks modern and ‘internationale’ no immediate visibility of any history but it seems so cutting edge you don’t care. My initial plan was to go snowboarding right away but it was a tad late and I was pretty tired from the night before. So instead I was on a walkabout around downtown Vancouver. The main strip Granville St is home to many bars, restaurants and shops of all description. It’s a long street though so I ended up walking awhile. I came across some cars tipped over in the middle of the road?! As it turns out they were shooting scenes from the series “The Fringe” and a host of series crew members were making the scene look like some sort of explosion had occurred, they were piling car parks and junk out of the back of pickup trucks and randomly throwing them on the road.

My goal was a much talked about record store on W Hastings St. It was vinyl only but the prices were kind of ridiculous, exactly what you’d find back home. Used albums for $50? No thanks. I’m regretting not buying a heap more in Japan, am yet to come across those sort of bargains. I’m hoping maybe the UK will have some bargain basements.

I found an amazing Sushi place and spotted some amazing backstreet graffiti. Further down W Hastings the neighbourhood gets distinctly dodgier. The street is littered with homeless people all congregating around one block really. Offered bud and shrooms twice whilst walking past. It’s probably only a matter of time before the gentrification of the city turns this area into brand new apartments and all these people are shoed away somewhere out of site, it seems like Vancouver is aiming to be that kind of city. But the area near the water has that old-historic vibe to it (called Gas Town) I unfortunately didn’t get to explore any further as the weather started to get pretty bad. Headed back to the hotel and whilst out looking for dinner I found a place called Morrissey’s. Of course I headed straight in, it does seem to be named after the singer with one of his albums displayed proudly near the stereo. They play really good music at this trendy bar/restaurant (when I say trendy, I mean modern but not wanky) you can even make requests. I had probably the best Steak/Salad I’ve ever eaten and then headed back to my hotel for an early night (up early for snowboarding!)

I somehow woke up late with my head feeling not so-great. Too many drinks at the pub the night before perhaps? I was worried about Cypress Mountain. There was the debacle at the recently held olympics (it was an official venue for several of the events) and apparently they had to ‘cart in’ snow because there was such a lack of it up there. Everyone I’d spoken to said I have to go to Whistler (a real resort with big mountains about 2hours drive North) I’d already driven 3hours from Seattle the day before however and it’d be a 4hour round trip, add to that the fact I’ll be driving a total of about 19hours over 3days after I leave Vancouver and I’d decided against it. I’m not an all-mountain pro boarder anyhow and besides I’d already experienced big stuff in Japan.

Thirty minutes from my hotel to the carpark! Like a quick scoot to your friends place and your in the Cypress Mountain lodge carpark. That is fricken awesome! No fees to park and all day lift tickets are $47. The lodge is at the base of two mountains (Black Mountain and Mount Strachan which literally go in opposite directions like a valley) You only have to walk about 100m to either lifts. I opted for Strachan first up. Canadians have an interesting idea of “no snow” Snow depth was at 4metres and nice and soft and utterly better than anything you’d find in Australia. The only lack of snow was on the road on the drive up the mountain (which I was happy with having no snow tyres) It’s probably people being picky, sure Cypress doesn’t have 10minute lifts and dozens of trails but it’s perfect for beginner/intermediates like myself. I don’t think a 4hour roundtrip to Whistler is worth it frankly, though it probably would be if your pedantic and an experienced boarder. This is only my 9th day on a board after all. My head wasn’t all there so I had lunch before I headed up. I’d hired a 2009 Burton Custom so for the first time ever I’d be on a really good Burton board.

The thing turns on a dime, it took me the first part of the day to get used to my new settings, switching from 0 at the rear to 6-out. It’s effortless to turn but takes some getting used to, as your mostly always turning too much but I eventually settled in. The green run is nice and long and doesn’t really have to be green, you can cut in down trails that are blue halfway down and the run itself had a nice ‘ditch’ area near the end where you could drop in/down and then get some good air off jumping back out (like a mini-halfpipe/gutter run) I ended up staying on this run all day practicing trying to get air and mostly falling on my ass. Still have a long way to go.

I ended up meeting some cool people and even though I’d had an allday pass (which runs to 7pm) I had to call it a day at 5 because I was ready to fall asleep. No more beers the night before! I was looking forward to the next day though. Also on the way down the mountain there is a viewing point which overlooks Vancouver and the ocean. Stunning views! Of course I didn’t have my camera! :s The storm clouds brewing on the horizon wasn’t a good sign though and that night it started raining heavily, which meant no getting out and taking photos of Vancouver at night unfortunately. I again headed to Morrissey’s for good food and some tips on where to go in Vancouver at night. Roll on the next few days!

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